Tag: food

He asked, “Why didn’t you get buns?” “I don’t know,” she answered. “You went out specifically to get buns,” he said. “I know. I changed my mind,” she said.

You see, she was going to the store specifically to get buns for supper. She went out of the house not really thinking about how she looked. When she got to the store, she realized she had on shorts. She felt fat. Her legs looked gross. She didn’t want to go in the store. She sat in the car and struggled with herself. Talking to herself. Telling herself she looked disgusting and then telling herself she looked fine, but still not being able to make herself go into the store. Back and forth. Back and forth. She came home instead.

This used to be me. Maybe not buns, but that doesn’t matter and that isn’t the point. I would be out and about and then decide to run to the store to pick up some things. I then realized I had on shorts. Big deal, right? It is a big deal to someone who is not comfortable with their body, or not comfortable with how they look. They see every single flaw in their bodies. They see every single chunk of fat. They see every single dimple of cellulite. They see everything wrong and nothing right. The wheels are falling off and nothing seems to get you out of the hole. No matter how many times someone tells you that you look good, you don’t believe them. The windows are so far down, you don’t know if they’ll ever roll back up.

It’s crazy how we get so caught up in how we look. It shouldn’t really matter how we look. I realize everyone wants to look good. I want to look good too. The line is crossed though when there is a right way or a wrong way to look. Everyone is totally different, and how cool is that? How can society, or anyone else for that matter, decide what is good and what is bad? It should not be that way. We need to stand up for ourselves. Perception is a choice. Being healthy is a choice. We get a choice in how we look. We get a choice in being healthy. Key word is choice. The ball is bounced to you. It’s up to you.

Negative body image and crappy self-esteem can take a long time to work through. Just know this, once you realize what is going on and once you start to figure this out, you need to own it. Once you own it, you can then begin to take the steps to work through it. Realize it’s your choice. Once you start that mental toughness of not caring what other people think of you, because really, you are the only one who should care about what you look like, then things start to change. Things start to feel different. You start to feel better about yourself. You start to toughen up. Beauty isn’t just on the outside. Everyone is their own kind of beautiful. Own it.

You have to search for it though. Find your nuts and bolts, find your center, find your core. Only then can you begin to get past the insecurities that haunt you. The insecurities that jump on you and don’t let you see the real you. When we are constantly telling ourselves negative things, well guess what? We start to believe them. We start to believe we look fat. We start to believe we look terrible. We get a shift in our mindset. We start to feel self-conscious. Make the decision to change. Make the choice to change. It does not happen overnight. It takes time. Get yourself settled in and get some popcorn for the movie. This is going to take a while. Don’t give up on yourself though, you are definitely worth it.

There is beauty in toughness
There is beauty in confidence
There is beauty in owning your shit
There is beauty in figuring this out
There is beauty in not giving a fuck about what other people think
There is beauty in feeling top shelf about yourself.

You hear it all the time. If I could just eat right then I would lose weight. Or, wow, if so and so would eat right they would feel so much better. But seriously, how many of you eat right? What is eating right? So if you don’t eat right, does that mean you eat wrong?

Let’s explore. First of all we need to figure out what eating right means to us. Eating right to me means eating fresh whole foods, protein, fruits, vegetables and good fats. No sugar and no packaged foods. I do, however, like a nice glass of wine. I know that wine all the time doesn’t do my body good. I sure wish it did though. I love wine. If I am eating super strict I cut all alcohol. If I am eating somewhat strict I usually have a glass or two on Friday nights when we go out to eat. If I am not eating strict, I still eat as above, but I will drink wine about 3 to 4 times a week.

But, what if someone doesn’t even know what whole foods or protein or anything I mentioned above looks like. I can’t imagine someone would not know what a fruit or vegetable looks like, but I can see how someone might not know what protein or good fats are.

Fats – Considered heart healthy, good fats include olive oils, avocado oil, coconut oil (finally coming into the mainstream), grass fed butter, olives, avocados, and nuts. Nuts, need to be eaten in small quantities because a small amount packs a huge calorie and fat punch. If you like macadamia nuts, you can totally relate. Ummmmm, I ate the whole bag. Portion control is a big deal here for nuts. Fats have 9 calories per gram, as opposed to 4 for carbohydrates and meats, so you can see they are about twice the amount of calories as the other foods.

Let’s put a meal together now. This is a sample of what I eat when being super strict.

Breakfast: So because I know my body doesn’t function well on cereal and milk, sometimes I will eat oatmeal, not the instant though. I use the rolled oats that need to be cooked in the microwave for about 3 minutes and about 10 minutes on the stove. I then add protein powder into the oatmeal. I will also add some eggs to my breakfast. This works for my body and doesn’t give me a crash later in the morning. If I don’t eat the oatmeal, I eat eggs A LOT. I really like eggs and sausage and avocado.

Lunch: Lunch is probably the easiest meal for me. I love to have a giant bowl of spinach and cabbage or any other kind of salad as the base. I then add some tuna or chicken and a little bit of olive oil drizzled over the whole thing. Light and energizing.

Supper: Usually chicken or salmon or beef and a big pile of vegetables like broccoli and brussels sprouts, all drizzled with olive oil.

I also drink a lot of water during the day. I probably drink more than a gallon of water every day.

I rarely do dairy. My body does not like it.

The above is eating healthy, FOR ME. Although this would be a good way to eat for a lot of people, it might not be for everyone. You need to figure out what works for you.

There are so many ways of eating: Paleo, Ketogenic, low carb, low fat, high protein, and the list goes on and on. It gets confusing and it can be hard to figure out what really is healthy. THAT is where you have to experiment with things. It definitely becomes trial and error. Sometimes Paleo is awesome for people who are overweight and have Type 2 Diabetes, but it might not be for you. Eating right for you, may not mean eating right for someone else. Every single body is different and every single body reacts differently to different foods. Remember that. Just because Paleo works awesome AF for you, does not mean it is going to work like that for someone else. As much as I love Paleo, I know it’s not the only way to eat right.

Change things up until you find something that makes you feel amazing. It can be very interesting and empowering to know that you are in control of your own health. Isn’t that how it should be anyway? I think it should be. I don’t know about you, but I want to figure out things myself first.

When I get older, I don’t want to have to take a bunch of different medications to combat any problems that could have been prevented with nutrition in the first place. After all, let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food. Sound familiar?